Public land lease

The government has already granted roughly 300,000 hectares in economic land concessions (ELC) so far this year, according to data released by a local rights group yesterday. The figure, which amounts to 40 percent of the total land concessions granted in all of 2011, has ...

The government last month granted four companies a total 23,000 hectares of land concessions for agro-industry projects and a special economic zone (SEZ), according to human rights groups, which said it obtained the information from government documents. An additional 500 hectares inside a wildlife sanctuary were ...

Svay Rieng Provincial Prosecutor Hing Bunchea said yesterday that he had summoned two of the three women shot at a Bavet City special economic zone (SEZ) for questioning next week, and denied accusations that investigators were dragging their feet on the case. Rights groups continued to ...

The court prosecutor investigating last month’s shooting of three female factory workers at a special economic zone (SEZ) denied a newspaper report claiming the chief suspect, former Bavet City Governor Chhouk Bundith, had confessed to shooting the women. Svay Rieng Provincial Court prosecutor Hing Bunchea said ...

Despite admitting yesterday to firing his pistol during last month’s protest at a Svay Rieng province special economic zone (SEZ), where three women were shot, Bavet City’s former governor Chhuk Bundith was free to return home after making his confession to the court. “[Mr. Bundith] came ...

Two female garment workers who were shot last month during a protest at a Svay Rieng province special economic zone (SEZ) filed a complaint with the provincial court yesterday accusing former deputy Bavet City Governor Chhuk Bundith of attempted murder. Bun Chenda, 21, and Nuth Sokhorn, ...

Two women who were shot and injured during a Feb. 20 protest at a special economic zone (SEZ) said yesterday they plan to file court complaints against Bavet City’s former governor, Chhuk Bundith. Nuth Sokhorn, 23, and Bun Chenda, 21, both said they will go ...

A senior official at the Commerce Ministry and the secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) were both silent yesterday regarding a letter sent to the ministry by garment buyers on Friday, urging the government to intensify its investigation of last month’s triple ...

Last year saw a record increase in economic land concessions and the area controlled by agro-industrial companies jumped to more than 2 million hectares nationwide, according to human rights groups who track such projects. Mining companies are also flocking to Cambodia and those already have ...

Some of the world’s largest international clothing brands, along with foreign labor protection groups, have called on the Cambodian government to intensify its investigation of last month’s triple shooting of spectators at a Svay Rieng special economic zone. Signed by several of the biggest customers ...

The provincial office of rights group Licadho has called on Koh Kong provincial politicians to help more than 1,000 families being forcibly evicted to make way for a sprawling gambling resort and other development, representative said yesterday. More than 130 families, from three villages in Kiri ...

The Cambodian Legal Education Center (CLEC) is “extremely concerned” after an investigation following a mass fainting last month at Nanguo garment factory in Preah Sihanouk province last month found that at least one to two workers are fainting daily in eight factories in the province. ...

Bavet city officials ordered a deputy village chief to offer two victims of the Feb. 20 shooting in Svay Rieng province cash or a motorcycle in return for them not filing a court complaint against the man who shot them inside a special economic zone. ...

The Appeal Court on Tuesday upheld its own previous guilty verdict against a farmer from Kompong Chhnang province for defaming KDC, the agri-business firm owned by Chea Kheng, the wife of Industry, Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem. Pheng Rom is a member of one ...

The Governor of Bavet city Chhouk Bundit, who is suspected of being involved in shooting three garment workers last month, was removed from his position to make way for the court to look into the case. “Prime Minister Hun Sen signed a letter on Monday to ...

One hundred and twenty families evicted from the Borei Keila community filed a criminal lawsuit with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday against Phanimex, the company that ordered the demolition of their homes, seeking a total of $360,000 in damages, residents said. Former resident In ...

Borei Keila evictees who have been sleeping in stairwells near where their houses once stood said yesterday the Phnom Penh municipal authority had promised to help them find homes. Ka Rohanny, 35, a representative of the evicted residents, told the Post Kiet Chhe, deputy administrative president ...

When Chhin Theang picked up the long-awaited title to her Boeung Kak home during a low-key ceremony at the Daun Penh district office on Monday, the moment was bittersweet. “We always had hope because we protested. We had to get land titles,” Ms. Theang said ...

Japanese Ambassador Masafumi Kuroki yesterday said he hoped the government arrests the gunman behind the Feb. 20 triple shooting of protesting workers in Svay Rieng province, and that safety must be ensured for investors in the special economic zone (SEZ) where the incident took place. ...

The Svay Rieng Provincial Court yesterday summoned Bavet city governor Chhuk Bundith for questioning over his alleged role in the shooting of three female garment workers at a special economic zone (SEZ) in the province two weeks ago, court officials said. Human rights groups continued ...

Armed troops that were deployed last month to quell a land dispute protest outside the Kompong Speu Provincial Court were ordered to do so by a court prosecutor, a commander in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) said yesterday. On Feb. 9, a detachment of ...

Confusion continued to swirl around the fate of Bavet city Governor Chhuk Bundith yesterday after the Interior Ministry last week identified him as the sole suspect in the Feb. 20 triple shooting of protesters at a special economic zone (SEZ). While human rights groups claimed yesterday ...

A week and a half after a uniformed man opened fire on three female protesters at a special economic zone in Svay Rieng province, a photograph surfaced in a local newspaper on Friday showing the alleged gunman brandishing a pistol and surrounded by police and ...

Local human rights group Adhoc has requested provincial approval to stage a large-scale march later this month involving hundreds of indigenous minorities embroiled in a land dispute in Ratanakiri province. The demonstration is being organized to bring attention to what minority villagers claim is judicial ...